Marvel’s Wolverine is a more linear game than Spider-Man - don’t expect a city to explore or a base to nose around in
Marvel’s Wolverine is taking a fundamentally different design approach from Insomniac’s successful Spider-Man series. Rather than an open-world sandbox experience, the upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive will be a linear, single-player action game focused on delivering a high-octane adventure from beginning to end.
According to game director Mike Daly, this was an intentional creative decision from the project’s inception. “We did not set out to make an open world game or a sandbox game,” he explained. “What we really wanted was high octane, high intrigue, linear single player adventure, and the missions reflect that in their structure.”
The game will not feature an explorable city comparable to Spider-Man’s New York, nor will players have access to a base of operations for between-mission downtime. Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters—a natural fit for the X-Men—will not appear, as the X-Men don’t exist within this game’s universe.
Instead, the experience is structured as a globe-hopping adventure with comic book-style pacing. Daly likened the gameplay to a “rollercoaster” that maintains tension and momentum throughout the journey, prioritizing narrative drive and action intensity over environmental exploration.
This represents a notable shift in Insomniac’s approach for Marvel properties, departing from the open-world formula that defined the Spider-Man games. For players seeking a more focused, story-driven action experience, Wolverine appears positioned as a streamlined alternative to Insomniac’s previous Marvel work. The game is scheduled to release later this year on PS5.